Rabbi's Message, April 7 2026 - Counting Omer, and Counting our Blessings

Shalom,

Looking around, we can see challenges…and we can see blessings.  Both are real and part of living.  Journeying through the days of Passover, the first week of our sojourn of forty years in the wilderness, we begin the first stage of this voyage:  Towards Sinai.  The counting of the Omer, the period of seven weeks from Pesach to Shavuot, from the Exodus to Sinai provides for us ways to see both these challenges and blessings.  As Dr. Rabbi Mark Washofsky writes, “In a largely agrarian society, the Israelites were highly dependent on the whims of the natural elements. Sun, storms, rain, wind, and insects were beyond their control and could severely affect their livelihood—even their very survival. In the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, the people were in a state of limbo, vacillating between fear that weather or pests would destroy the harvest and hope for a bountiful crop. Counting the days could certainly have been a steadying factor, a way to dispel doubts and focus prayers and dreams toward God, and strengthen faith while away from the Temple.”  

Navigating this journey through the Omer provides this chance to build up, counting - intentionally marking each day - up towards the peak experience of the revelation at Sinai.  In the Omer Journal (click here>>>) for this year, we begin with the middah (Jewish soul trait) of zehirut - awareness or watchfulness - as a lens through which to embrace each passing moment.  It is a tool to practice, to better see the blessings filling our lives.  As we count, adding one to each day towards Sinai, may we grow ever more aware.  May we see better the beauty and blessing that does fill our lives.  Perhaps through this, the additive experience of numbering each new day, we build better ways to notice, grow our wonder, remind ourselves of blessing, and allow ourselves to appreciate ever more that life is beautiful.

Moadim L’Simcha - May Our Seasonal Transitions Be Full of Joy,

Rabbi Evon